Thursday 3 January 2008

3rd try is a charm, or problems come in threes?

I seem to have become the queen of complaints. Mostly in regards to important things, but I feel lately I'm always trying to throw some muscle around to get things done, fairly. The subject line isn't quite right, as there are more then 3 things I'm trying to sort at the moment. First off, my employer is trying not to pay me for the New Year public holidays, stating some loophole in the Holiday Act which supposedly states that if I am on unpaid leave, I am not allowed to be paid for the bank holidays. Yes, I inadvertantly used up my holiday (vacation) time earlier than I should have, but this rule was never stated to me when I was told I would be paid for public holidays, nor have I seen anything while combing through the Holidays Act to indicate it is true. The Department of Labour advised me I should be paid, yet advised my employer they do not have to pay me, so I have sent in a complaint to the Labour Inspectorate. If the company is wrong, they could be heavily fined, which would serve them right, in my mind, for their pompous and inflexible attitude.

I've been going back and forth with our wedding planner, who decided to use our wedding photos on her websites without letting us know. Had she asked us ahead of time, and let us send her pics we would have been comfortable being displayed, we might have been willing (and may have given a positive recommendation as well as she's new to the business), but I had to find them by surprise, and after asking her to remove them (some of which she did), she's told me they are technically property of the photographer, who has given her permission to use them. Now, to my mind, that's just a bit callous, as this is something personal. I can't tell from the latest email if she is going to remove them all, or use some...we'll see. Legally, I think she can get away with it, as some don't have us in them and are photos of objects (such as our rings and jewelry), but as I said, it seems a bit cold to me.

I am at least making progress on getting us a refund for our very mediocre (to be kind) Christmas dinner (we're up to a voucher, which won't do us much good as the restaurant is in Christchurch), but no luck on Steve's airline miles with United from last March for our trip down here, which will be invalid in a little less than 2 months, and fingers crossed I will receive my absentee ballot on time after a follow up email.

I don't feel bad about complaining about any of these things, as they're all valid, but boy do I feel like all I am doing these days is pushing at people.

Modified to add: Ok, light at the end of the tunnel...we've received a full refund on our Xmas dinner, the wedding planner has agreed to remove our photos (and hopefully not replace them with any others of ours), and after 20 minutes on hold with United Airlines, I think we may actually get Steve's miles, 10 months later. Of course, those were the miles from the US to Australia...I still have to follow up on Australia to NZ, but I thought I shouldn't confuse them with more than one thing at a time!!

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